Hillfort

Fieldnotes

'Visited' 30.7.11
A relaxing day out with the children in sunny Shropshire, visiting a couple of EH sites while giving Karen the chance for a quiet day at home. Well, that was the plan!
The traffic was busy all the way up through the Marches but around Bayston Hill it was horrendous due to road works. We sat in a hot car for what seemed like ages as we inched our way towards the site. At this point Sophie awoke and wanted her bottle! Unfortunately I couldn't do anything as I was stuck in traffic with nowhere to pull over.
Then disaster – I missed the turn off and had to crawl all the way to the main A49/A5 junction and come back up the road – which was equally busy the other way.
Sophie was not impressed! As any parent will tell you, there is nothing more frustrating or distracting than a screaming child in the back of a car!
Eventually I turned into a cul-de-sac which I thought would give me access to the site – wrong! The whole area was surrounded by houses so no access although it did give me chance to feed Sophie.
I looked at the map again and realised the only other option was to take the road leading to a quarry. Unfortunately this meant going back into the road works. By now I was seriously thinking of giving it up as a bad job but knew I would later regret it if I did.
At last I found the right road and was immediately confronted with several warning signs stating 'Private road – access to official quarry site traffic only – keep out' – or words to that effect.
By now I had had enough and thought 'sod it' and drove down the road anyway.
Despite getting looks from a lorry driver coming the opposite was I found a field entrance I could squeeze the car next to.
Up to my right, on the brow of the hill, was the unmistakable sight of a single ditch / rampart. From this distance it looked to be pretty well preserved. By now I realised there was no chance of me getting any closer as firstly I didn't feel comfortable leaving the car where it was, secondly there was a bull in the field and thirdly both children had now fallen asleep!!
All things considered I was grateful to have at least a view of part of the Hillfort.
If visiting this site I would suggest finding somewhere to park on the main road and walking the rest of the way.
Access to the Hillfort looked easy enough from the field although there is no official public right of way to the site.